Prior 12 Feb 05

What a day to be on the ice. I picked up long time partner Ken and we were on our way before first light. We started East of Sand Point in 18 feet of water. There were fish on the Vexilar right away, and they jumped all over my Ratso (white body, pink head Gary!). We had several very nice sunfish in the bucket when suddenly it seemed we were in the middle of a freeway. Apparently a large group of people from Hastings were having some kind of get-together on Prior, and we had inadvertantly set up right in the middle of their meeting place. They were very nice people but as soon as the commotion started the fish quit.

Off we went trying different places and depths. The best places seemed to be along th northerly shorelines in 10-25 feet of water. The deep hole South of the island was devoid of fish. That hole had over 100 houses on it last year!

There were a lot more lookers than biters. We tried a variety of presentations and baits but it didn’t seem to make much difference. Every 15 minutes or so you’d see them come through on the Vexilar. And every third or fourth group would have a biter. We ended up scratching out one limit of sunfish and a few perch.

Is it just me, or does this seem to be getting tougher every year? Have we caught all of the agressive fish and left only the meek? I have to believe that the finese tactics we’re using today would have clobbered the fish 10 years ago. Today they just stare at your jig and then swim away.

In any event we had a lot of fun, and in SUNBURNED. It feels great!

Rootski

Thanks for the update Rootski.

I have to admit, that I’ve put the ice gear away for the season.

I’m all ready to pound the river this spring!!!!

I am thinking if you find the fish before the ice goes out they will be attacking anything you put down there. Anybody have advice on where to find them. Do they go into the shallow bays to feed on this lake similar to other lakes? Or can you still find them deep. Those guys that live on the lake probably have a hay day on some warm march days when the ice gets thin since they don’t have to walk all the way to some of the bays from the launches.

I’m not sure where you’d find them. Last spring we were out on the upper lake 2 days before the ice went off. We couldn’t buy a Crappie or a Sunfish. On the other hand, we caught over 50 Walleyes. All about 12 inches long and all on waxworms! We didn’t make it to the lower lake (Sand Point area) during the same time period. As of last Saturday most of the fish seemed to be hanging around in 18-23 feet of water. They were biting pretty good until the lake got busy. There were A LOT of people out there. The fish were in the same places, they just wouldn’t bite once the noise started. I’ll be if you were out there at dawn on a weekday you could do very well.

Rootski

Time of year and time of day make a big difference on where the fish will be. If you get a long stretch of sunlight the fish will bite better. Provides sunlight to plants and in return they produce oxygen. In late winter the fish become oxygen starved and in some lakes they can actually stratify above the no oxygen level. But the early spring late day/evening bite can be good because of oxygen levels returning. And closer to weeds or spawning bays will be a great place to look. It’s unfortunately when the ice is starting to go out. Which in this part of the country means late March or early April bite. This year, though, it could be earlier.